Cryptid
by JJ Rust
Summary: When a mutilated body is discovered at Camp Lejeune, the team is sent in to investigate. What they find is shocking. The killer may not be human!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own NCIS_

* * *

_Well, someone had sex last night._

Ziva David silently groaned as she watched Tony DiNozzo strut toward the desk across from hers, a huge smiled plastered on his angular face. The corners of her mouth twisted. She could predict what was coming. He'd plop into his seat, shoot her that boyish grin, and begin boasting about the "hot babe" he was with last night and how she "had the most memorable night of her life . . . courtesy of Anthony DiNozzo."

She propped an elbow on her desk, rested her head on her hand, and stared at Tony as he dropped some sort of packet on his desk, fell into his seat and looked her way with a toothy grin.

"All right, Tony. Just give me all the details so I can move on with my life."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on. The goofier-than-normal grin, the extra spring in your step. You had sex last night, and I know you're just dying to brag about it."

"Much as I wish that were true, that's not the reason I'm psyched this morning."

Ziva feigned shock. "My goodness. There's something else that can make you this happy besides sex?"

"Well, what I did is _almost_ as good as sex." He picked up the packet and held it up for her.

She leaned forward in her chair. The green and gold cover bore the logo of Northern Virginia Community College.

"College? Didn't you graduate from college ten years ago? Why would you want to go back . . ." Her eyes widened with realization. "Ah, I get it. You're looking to recapture your youth by taking some sort of elective class so you can try to pick up co-eds."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. But this has nothing to do with co-eds." He shot out of his chair and bounded over to her desk. "Check out the class I signed up for."

Tony slapped the packet in her hand. She opened it, then drew her head back in amazement.

"_The Legacy of Die Hard?"_

"Yeah." Tony nodded excitedly. "Can you believe it? An entire class on the greatest action movie ever made. You should see the stuff they're gonna cover. Influence on other action movies, why they used Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' as the main theme, the masterful use of one-liners. 'Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs.' Or 'All things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.' And, of course, the classic, "Yippie-Ki-Ay, Mother -"

"Yes, I get it." She snapped the packet closed. "You're telling me that a college, an institution of higher learning, is going to waste time and money on a class revolving around a movie?"

Tony's jaw fell open. "'A movie?' You're calling _Die Hard _a movie? Why don't you just call the Mona Lisa _a painting? _Or the Grand Canyon _a big hole? _David, we're talking about _Die Hard._ This movie changed the way all action movies are made. The hero getting messed up, the hero using his head instead of relying completely on firepower. If you'd actually seen _Die Hard, _you'd be able to appreciate that fact."

"Actually, I did see _Die Hard."_

"Get outta here," Tony scoffed. "Really?"

"Yes, I really did see _Die Hard. _What, do I look like someone who'd watch something like _Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants _or some other . . . um, uh . . . oh, what do they call those movies with weepy, whiny women?"

"Chick flicks."

"Yes! Chick flicks!" She pointed at Tony. "Do I look like someone who would watch chick flicks?"

"Now that I think about it, no you don't." He placed his palms on her desk and leaned forward. "So tell me. Was that one of the greatest movies of all time or what?"

Ziva bobbed her head from side-to-side. "It was rather entertaining."

"'Rather entertaining?'" Tony sputtered. He blinked and shook his head. "For cryin' out loud. All the explosions, all the gunfights, all the punching and kicking. I thought you Mossad types would love that sort of stuff."

"You obviously overlooked all the inaccuracies in the movie. Like firing MP-5s and Steyr AUGs on full automatic for seven or eight seconds. If you did that in real life, you'd burn through all the rounds in about _two _seconds."

"Well, most people go to the movies to escape real-life."

"Most novelists are able to have accurate descriptions of weapons in their books. I don't understand why Hollywood can't do the same. All the millions and millions to produce these movies and they can't get someone to pick up a phone, call a police station or a military base and ask a simple question about how a submachine gun works."

Tony scowled at her. He snatched the pamphlet from her hands, folded it in half and pointed it at her. "Leave it to you, David, to try and take all the fun out of a college class on _Die Hard."_

Ziva leaned back in her chair and shot him a wry grin. It was so easy to get a rise out of him.

Grumbling under his breath, Tony started back to his desk. He only managed three steps before an authoritive voice cut through the air of NCIS headquarters.

"Saddle up, people. We've got a case."

Agent Jethro Gibbs marched between the rows of desks, his ever present Styrofoam cup of coffee in his right hand.

"Where are we off to, Boss?" Tony asked.

"Camp Lejeune. A Marine Recon unit on a training exercise came across a body on the beach." Gibbs stopped in front of Tony and stared at the packet in his hand. Tony responded with an innocent smile.

Gibbs snatched the packet and looked it over. "Going back to school, DiNozzo?" He opened up the packet, quickly studied it, and gave a curt nod. "_The Legacy of Die Hard._ Well, I'm sure you can put this to good use if we ever run into well-dressed terrorists who take over a skyscraper."

He chucked the packet onto Tony's and headed for the elevator. "Let's go. We've got a long drive ahead of us."

Tony stared at Gibbs and shook his head. "Nobody appreciates fine film-making anymore."

Ziva laughed to herself as she grabbed her gear.

**XXXXX**

Ziva's blue NCIS jacket rippled in the wind as she, Gibbs, Tony and McGee made their way across the beach. She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the tangy scent of salt air. A smile crept across her face as she turned to the surf, watching the frothy white waves roll over the beach. What she wouldn't give to get out of her work clothes, put on a bathing suit and go for a swim. Or maybe just take a nice, relaxing stroll along the surf. If she could find a nice guy to do it with, even better.

An image suddenly popped into her mind. She pictured herself in a loose-fitting sun dress walking along the beach. And a man was with her, holding her hand. She looked up into his face.

It was Tony!

Ziva shuddered. _Where the hell did that come from? _Okay, Tony was handsome, but as far as a relationship? No chance. She preferred men who acted their age.

She shook her head, suppressing her fantasies about a wonderful day at the beach, focusing all her mental energy on the task at hand.

Yellow tape cordoned off a section of the beach covered in shrubbery. A few Marine MPs stood sentry around the tape. One of them headed over to Gibbs, a stocky man with a silver oak leaf pinned to his field cap.

"Agent Gibbs?"

"That's me."

"Lieutenant Colonel Walling, head of base security. Thank you for coming."

Gibbs introduced the rest of the NCIS team to the Colonel, who led them over to another Marine, a lanky young man with a deeply tanned face.

"This is Lieutenant Hernandez. He led the Recon unit that discovered the body."

"Sir." Hernandez nodded to Gibbs.

"Lieutenant. So, what can you tell us?"

The Colonel led them under the tape as Hernandez spoke. "We were doing an insertion exercise by Zodiac. Hit the beach at Zero-One-Six this morning. Belly crawled our way up to this patch of ground, and that's when I saw it."

Ziva looked down and spotted the "it" Hernandez referred to. She kept her face stiff. Revulsion slithered through her inside. Her stomach churned.

She'd seen bodies in various stages of mutilation before, be it from guns, bombs, fire, even one time a power saw. But this! This had to be one of the worst.

For a moment, she couldn't believe "it" had actually been a human being. She was reminded of those nature documentaries she occasionally watched, the ones that showed some animal that had been eaten by a lion or cheetah, its torso split open, bloody ribs protruding from its body.

This one looked much worse.

The arms, legs and face appeared stripped of flesh. The right leg was missing below the knee. The left hand was also gone.

"Damn," Tony whispered. "Somebody did a number on this guy."

"Did you happen to see anyone else around when you landed, Lieutenant?" asked Gibbs.

Hernandez shook his head. "No, Sir. Me and my guys were the only ones here."

"What about before the exercise?"

"My CO and I were here two days ago scouting the beach when we were trying to decide on a landing site. We didn't see anything unusual then."

Gibbs stared hard at the corpse, then nodded. He turned to the rest of the team. "McGee. Get some shots. Everyone else, spread out and see what you can find."

McGee stepped up to the body. He clutched the camera, looking rather green, his wide eyes locked on the pile of bloody flesh and bones that used to be a person. Ziva felt a pang of sympathy for him. McGee certainly was no virgin when it came to bodies, but she couldn't imagine he'd ever seen one this bad.

I've _never seen one this bad._

She turned away from the corpse, her keen eyes scanning the ground. She found several shrubs trampled. McGee would need to snap pictures of them when he finished photographing the body.

"I got something." Tony knelt down and carefully picked up a small object. "Shell casing." He removed a baggie from his jacket pocket and dropped the spent round into it.

"I see another one." Ziva pointed to a shrub near Tony. He picked up that casing and put it in another baggie. A minute later he found a third casing.

"Think it was the killer?" Colonel Walling looked to Gibbs. "Or maybe our corpse fought back before he became a corpse?"

"Too early to tell." Gibbs eyed her and Tony. "Any sign of a weapon?"

"Not yet, Boss," Tony replied, checking out the shrubbery surrounding him.

Gibbs looked to Hernandez. "Lieutenant. Any of your Marines find a weapon here?"

"No, Sir. The body was the only thing we came across."

Ziva continued to look around, placing yellow numbered markers beside disturbed vegetation for McGee to photograph later. She took a quick glance back at the body, again fighting off her nausea. Who would mutilate a body like that? And how did they do it? Did the killer shoot this person before ripping him apart?

_Chainsaw? _Probably not. There'd be more blood spatter on the ground. What else could have been used? It'd have to be something strong to cut through human bone like that.

She came to a clearing and halted. Her brow furrowed as she stared at the patch of sand.

"Gibbs."

"Yeah, Ziva."

"I think you'll want to see this."

"What?" Gibbs tromped over, stopping next to her.

They both stared in silence at the four footprints in the sand.

Four footprints that were definitely not human.

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_


	2. Chapter 2

"Ah, Jethro. How fortuitous. I was just getting ready to call you."

Ziva couldn't help be feel a sense of disbelief as she and Gibbs walked into "Ducky" Mallard's examining room. _How does he know?_ Even after a year as Mossad liaison with NCIS, she couldn't figure out how Gibbs knew whenever Ducky had something relevant to report _before _the medical examiner could even get on the phone to him. She always told herself to not question her superior's sixth sense. Just accept it.

The natural curiosity inherent in all good intelligence operatives refused to let her do that.

One day, she vowed, she would solve this mystery. Today, however, she had a more important mystery to solve.

What killed the man lying on Ducky's stainless steel table?

"What do you have, Ducky?" Gibbs sipped his coffee.

"Well, we can rule out foul play in the death of this poor man."

"So none of the rounds we recovered hit him?" Ziva asked.

Ducky shook his head. "Not a one. All the wounds I've discovered clearly indicate that some animal was responsible for his death." He pointed out the various claw and bite marks on the carcass, a couple of them going completely through the bone.

"Do we know what sort of animal did this?" Gibbs asked.

Ducky tilted his head to one side. "Well, I did do some quick research of the fauna of North Carolina. There are only three animals capable of devouring a human being like this. One would be a cougar, though everything I read indicates they were eradicated in North Carolina decades ago. Oh, some people report seeing them, but state wildlife officials haven't been able to confirm any of those sightings. So that leaves us with a black bear and an alligator."

Ziva furrowed her brow. "I thought alligators only lived in Florida."

"Oh no, my dear Ziva. Alligators can be found throughout the southeastern part of the United States, and from Florida all the way up to the Carolinas. Though the problem with this being an alligator attack is that they tend to drag their pray back to their lair instead of just leaving it out in the open."

"So could it be a bear?" She folded her arms.

"Possibly, though black bear attacks on humans in North America are extremely rare. I read there have only been fifty-six such documented attacks over the past century."

"Still, it seems to me we only have two possibilities here. This man was either killed by a bear or an alligator."

"Not necessarily." Gibbs turned to her. "It could also be an animal that escaped from a zoo."

"I would think if a lion or a tiger escaped from one of the zoos down there it would be on the news."

Gibbs just stared at her with a neutral expression. "Not if it escaped from a private zoo."

"Ah, you might be on to something, Jethro." Ducky raised a finger. "I know during the 1970s, quite a few people in England bought leopards and jaguars as pets. It was all the rage back then. But those people quickly learned that those cats were nothing like the domesticated variety we've come to know. They couldn't handle the animal's wild nature, and in some cases, they released them into the countryside. Even to this day, reports persist of large cat sightings throughout England."

"So how do we find out where these private zoos are located?" Ziva inquired.

"Start with North Carolina's Game and Fish Department, or whatever agency down there handles animals. They might have records on any private zoos."

"I'll get on it." She nodded. "So I guess it's safe to say the shell casings we found came from our victim shooting at the animal that attacked him."

"I'd say that, too," Gibbs' lips twisted slightly. "If we'd been able to find the gun."

Ziva sighed to herself, then turned to Ducky. "Is it possible that whatever attacked our victim may have eaten his gun by mistake?"

Ducky shrugged. "I supposed it's possible, if it were a handgun. I've heard stories of sharks having their stomachs cut open and lo and behold, they discovered tires and license plates and all manner of surprising objects."

Ziva's eyes widened for a moment. She couldn't even imagine how a shark would come by a license plate, and why on earth it would eat it.

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks, Ducky. Let me know if you find anything else."

"Oh, you'll probably know the second I do. You always seem to."

Ducky smiled as Gibbs and Ziva departed the room.

"It doesn't look like this is our sort of case," she said to Gibbs as they walked down the well-lit corridor toward the elevator.

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, you heard Ducky. This was clearly an animal attack. Our victim was obviously trying to protect himself, and failed."

"Maybe."

Ziva's face scrunched up. "Maybe? Gibbs, do you really think someone trained a bear or an alligator to kill that man?"

"No, but I just don't think it's as cut and dry as you think."

She chewed on her lower lip. "It's the shell casings that are bothering you, isn't it?"

"More the fact we can't find a weapon to go with them. And I don't buy the fact that whatever attacked our victim ate that gun."

Ziva halted when they got to the elevator door and turned to him. "You think there was someone else there?"

"That's what we need to find out."

They rode the elevator back up to the main floor of NCIS headquarters. Ziva went to her desk and turned on her computer. She went online and checked the home page for the North Carolina state government. She scanned the list of departments and agencies and figured the State Wildlife Resources Commission looked promising.

They transferred her five times before she got someone, she prayed, could help her. She asked for any information on anyone running a private zoo within a hundred miles of Camp Lejeune. There were six private residences authorized by the state to keep what the Commission labeled as "exotic species." Four of them kept animals capable of devouring a human being, though the Commission received no word of any of them escaping.

_Not that that matters. _The owners of those zoos may not want to report it for fear of losing their license. She also was suspicious of the number the Commission person gave her.

_He should have said six private residences that we know of._

After taking down the addresses of the _known_ private zoos, Ziva thanked the man on the other end and hung up.

That's when McGee burst out, "We got it."

"Got what?" Gibbs marched around the divider surrounding McGee's desk.

His head jerked back in surprise. "B-Boss. I was just coming to get you."

"And why were you just coming to get me?"

"Um, uh, well. Uh, Colonel Walling just called from Camp Lejeune. They were able to get a positive match off the dental records."

"And?" Gibbs sipped his coffee.

McGee looked down at a piece of note paper in his hand. "The victim is Corporal Thomas Conti. He drove an LAV-25 for the Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion."

"Uh-huh." Gibbs stared at McGee, unsmiling. "Anything else?"

"Um, like what?"

"Like what he might have been doing alone on the beach at night. If he was alone. Does he own a personal weapon?"

"Well, um, the Colonel didn't say."

Gibbs' expression hardened.

McGee swallowed. "But I'll call Colonel Walling back and get that information."

"Then get to it, McGee."

He nodded and hurried back to his desk, snatching the phone from its cradle.

That's when Ziva's phone rang.

"NCIS, Officer David."

"Hi, Ziva! It's me, Abby!"

"What is it?"

Abby Sciuto gasped on the other end. "Ziva. You don't just say, 'what is it?' You're supposed to ask me how I am and engage me in small talk."

She rolled her eyes. "Abby, look. We're really busy with -"

"I know you're busy. But this is important to the whole co-worker bonding thing, you know? Now come on."

Ziva clenched her teeth and held her breath. Never in her life did she ever think someone who could be so happy could drive her so insane. But Abby certainly did that. She may be second to none in forensics and computers, but would just a modicum of professional be too much to ask for?

"_Zeeee-vaaaa."_ Now Abby sounded like a five-year-old.

She sighed, figuring it was best to humor the "goth" woman rather than listen to her whine.

"All right. Hello, Abby. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great, thank you for asking. My bowling team is in our league semi-finals. I think we have a good chance of winning the championship."

"Uh-huh." Ziva leaned back in her seat, remembering that Abby bowled on a team made up primarily of nuns.

_Abby and nuns. There are two things you wouldn't expect to go together._

She tried to picture that in her mind. It proved impossible.

"So," Abby continued. "What's new with you?"

She rocked a few times in her chair. "My synagogue is forming a book club. I'm thinking of joining."

"Cool. See, wasn't that fun?"

"Very much so. Now, what's the reason you're calling?"

"Okay. Now on to business. I wanted to see if Gibbs was up there. I've got something to show him."

"He's right here. I'll let him know."

"Thanks, Ziva. Oh, and if you want I can . . ."

Ziva hung up the phone, sparing her whatever other inane things Abby wanted to talk about. "Gibbs. That was Abby. She says she has something."

She and Tony followed Gibbs into the elevator and down to the floor for Abby's lab. Even before they reached the door she could hear loud, driving music through the closed door.

_How can that woman's eardrums still be intact after listening to that . . . noise?_

Ziva winced as the door opened. A piercing combination of electric guitars and a shrill-yet-operatic voice assaulted her ears. Amazingly, she could actually make out some words.

"_Why am I loved, only when I'm gone? Gone back in time to bless the child."_

"Hi, guys!" Abby bounced up and down and waved, a cheery smile highlighting a milky white face framed by black hair and pigtails.

Ziva couldn't help but gaze at Abby's outfit with incredulity. Even after all this time, she still couldn't get used to her appearance. The forensics people for Mossad never dressed like this, with clunky black boots, a skirt with a chain belt wrapped around it and a black T-shirt that read "Nightwish," which she assumed was the name of the band blaring through the lab.

"I don't recognize this one." DiNozzo looked around with a quizzical expression. "New band?"

Abby beamed. "Yeah. Nightwish. They're this super awesome metal opera band out of Finland. Do they rock or what?"

_Or what? _Metal and opera were two words Ziva never thought could be put together.

"This isn't why you called us down here, is it?" Gibbs asked, unsmiling.

"No, of course not. Besides, I know you're more a Tom Jones fan."

"What do you have, Abby?"

"All right already. Yeesh." She whirled around and tapped the keyboard of her computer, situated on a counter. "First, the easy one. The shell casings you recovered are forty caliber. Now," her smile grew wider. "For the big mystery"

Abby tapped a few more keys. Photos of the animal footprints popped up along the screen. She then reached up to one of the shelves and took down the plaster casts they had made of the prints.

"Okay, I took the photos of the footprints and the plaster casts over to the Washington National Zoo and had some of their zookeepers look over them. They compared them to every known large, land-dwelling predator out there. Not just the ones native to North America, but all over the world. Lions, tigers, Komodo Dragons. Oh my!"

Abby giggled.

Gibbs groaned.

Abby sighed and continued. "Anyway, after they got done looking at the prints, you know what they discovered?"

"What?" Gibbs asked flatly.

"That the prints don't belong to any known animal."

Gibbs' shoulders sagged slightly. "You brought us down here just to tell us you don't know what kind of animal made those footprints?"

"Ah!" Frustration flared across Abby's face. "Gibbs? Didn't you hear what I said? The prints don't belong to any _known_ animal. Do you realize what that means?"

"What?"

"It means we've got ourselves a cryptid."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_The lyrics used in this chapter belong to Nightwish from their song "Bless The Child."_


	3. Chapter 3

"A what?" both Ziva and Gibbs said at the same time.

"A cryptid." Abby leaned forward, an expectant look on her face.

Gibbs stared blankly at her. Ziva's brow furrowed, wondering if "cryptid" was another American slang word. They had so many of them, and seemed to come up with new ones every day. How they hell could anyone keep track of them all?

Abby let out a frustrated breath. "Cryptid! It's the new term for an undocumented animal."

"Oh!" Tony's face lit up in realization. "You mean like Bigfoot."

"Yes! Exactly!" Abby held up her hand, letting Tony give her a high-five.

Gibbs' eyes narrowed. "Please don't tell me you're serious about this. Bigfoot killed that Marine?"

"I didn't say it was Bigfoot. I'm saying it's an animal that hasn't been cataloged in the official zoological record. But there is one cryptid that's really big in the Carolinas." Abby held up both hands, bending her fingers so they resembled claws. "The Lizard Man!"

Gibbs groaned and rubbed his forehead. "So now we've gone from Bigfoot to a Lizard Man. Abby, other than IDing the shell casings, do you have anything that's actually _useful?"_

A dejected look came over her face. "Gibbs, this is useful. We know we can rule out any native predators, or any known non-native predatory species that may have gotten loose from somewhere."

"And instead blame it on a fairy tale monster?"

"Well at one time people thought gorillas were made-up monsters. And the people at the zoo said they couldn't identify the animal that made those prints. So maybe it's time to think outside the box on this one." Abby drew a box in the air with her index fingers.

A momentary scowl marred Gibbs' face. "Abs, you know how I feel about that saying."

She frowned. "Yes. 'People only say think outside the box when they run out of meaningful ideas.'"

"Exactly. Now take the photos of the prints and the plaster casts back to the Washington Zoo and have your friends there look at them again. Better yet, find another zoo around here and take them there. Maybe their 'experts' will be better than the ones at Washington and can tell us what _real _animal those footprints belong to."

"Yes, Gibbs." Abby lowered her head.

Ziva felt a little pang of sympathy for the woman. Still, how could any take something like that seriously? Cryptids? Monsters? Maybe Gibbs was on to something about the zoo people. Maybe they didn't look at the footprints hard enough. Maybe they'd have better luck at another zoo.

_But the Washington Zoo is one of the bigger ones in America. You would expect them to be on the . . . _bowl_, is it, when it comes to identifying animal footprints._

Of course, she'd been around long enough to know that even "experts" can be wrong from time to time. Unfortunately, in her chosen profession, errors by experts tended to cost lives.

She followed Gibbs and Tony out of Abby's lab.

"Boss!" McGee jogged toward them.

"Yeah, McGee?"

The portly computer expert halted a couple feet from Gibbs. "I called Colonel Walling back. He says Corporal Conti did have a personal weapon. A Browning T Bolt Varmint rifle he used for hunting. It's a twenty-two caliber."

"And the casings we recovered were from a forty caliber weapon," Ziva stated.

"It's looking more and more like Corporal Conti wasn't out there by himself." Gibbs looked back to McGee. "Did Colonel Walling have any idea what Conti was doing on the beach that night?"

"Um, n-no, Boss."

"Mm-hmm." Gibbs nodded. "Well, let's find that out ourselves."

"Back to the _Kak-a-lackas, _huh, Boss_?"_ Tony grinned.

Gibbs gave him a harsh stare, then swatted him upside the head. "Don't use stupid nicknames for North Carolina, DiNozzo. I spent a lot of my time in the Corps there. It's a nice state."

He stalked off, leaving Tony to rub the back of his head.

Ziva looked at her partner, chuckled softly, and followed Gibbs down the hall.

**XXXXX**

When they arrived at Camp Lejeune, Gibbs sent her and Tony to talk with the men in Conti's platoon, while he and McGee checked the dead Marine's quarters. One of Colonel Walling's MPs escorted them to a bland concrete gray building, where the platoon had gathered in a classroom for a briefing on new upgrades for the LAV-25 armored vehicles. They decided to start with Conti's commanding officer, Lieutenant Quincy Hackett. At first glance, the lanky, narrow-faced, dark-skinned man looked like he should still be in high school. But the eyes told the real story. This man was a warrior, through and through.

After she and Tony introduced themselves, they walked Lieutenant Hackett down the hallway away from the classroom, stopping when they reached the T-junction.

"I assume this has to do with Corporal Conti?" The Marine stood rigidly before them.

"You assume correctly," replied DiNozzo.

Hackett cranked an eyebrow. "Honestly, Sir, I would have figured NCIS would be done investigating his death. It's my understanding Conti was killed by some animal."

"That's true," said Ziva. "But we have evidence that suggests someone else may have been with Corporal Conti when he died, and may have shot the animal."

Even with his stiffened face, Hackett seemed to be mulling over her words. "That's news to me. But I'll help anyway I can."

"Never had any doubt." Tony smiled and pulled out a notebook and pen. "Now, when was the last time you saw Corporal Conti?"

"Just a few hours before they found him on the beach. Right around seventeen-thirty hours. We'd just wrapped up a session in the LAV-25 simulators."

"Do you know where he went afterwards?" asked Ziva.

"No, Ma'am."

"Do you know if he left the simulator area with anyone?"

Hackett nodded. "I did see him head out with Corporal Chambers. That's not much of a surprise. Those two are best friends. They've been together since Boot Camp."

"What kind of Marine was Corporal Conti?" This from Tony.

Hackett paused, his lips tightening for a moment. "Corporal Conti was a competent Marine."

Ziva took note of the Lieutenant's pause, and his use of the word "competent." Not "good," not "outstanding." Just "competent," which to her meant the man could follow orders and perform his duties satisfactorily, but had no other qualities that made him stand apart from his peers.

Tony continued. "Any idea who he might have taken to the beach, or maybe if he was meeting someone there?"

"I don't know for sure."

"Maybe he had a girlfriend? Maybe they were gonna meet up at the beach for a little . . . well, you know."

A spark of surprise flashed through Ziva. She was amazed Tony hadn't used one of his more colorful expressions to describe two people having sex.

"I know he was seeing some high school girl from Morehead City. Rather attractive girl, too. But I think they may have broken up."

"Why do you say that?" Ziva asked.

"About a month ago, I noticed Conti looked depressed. I asked if there was anything bothering him. He told me there wasn't, though I didn't believe him."

"Did you pursue the matter further?"

"No, Ma'am. Conti may have been down in the dumps, but I didn't see it affecting his performance in the platoon. I felt if his personal problems didn't carry over to his duties, it was none of my business."

Ziva gently tapped her notebook with the tip of her pen. "Did Corporal Conti have any other personal problems?"

The veins in Hackett's neck stood out for a moment. "If I may ask, Ma'am, is this relevant? I mean, Corporal Conti wasn't murdered. He was killed by an animal."

"True. But since it appears he was with another person the night he was killed, we have to be thorough in our investigation. So, did Corporal Conti have any other personal problems?"

Hackett sighed and looked away for a moment. "I don't like to speak ill of my men, Ma'am, especially one who's dead."

"I understand your feelings, Lieutenant, and believe me I admire the sentiment. It's not our intention to disgrace Corporal Conti's memory. All we want to find out is who else was on the beach with him that night and why?"

Hackett's jaw stiffened. His shoulders rose with a noticeable breath. "Corporal Conti had a gambling addiction."

Ziva nodded, scribbling in her notebook. "For how long?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Long before I took command of the platoon five months ago."

"How bad was it?" asked Tony.

"Pretty bad. Online, horse tracks, greyhound races, the Indian casinos in Cherokee, you name it. He's probably run up well over ten thousand dollars in debt."

Tony winced. "Well that's not a good thing on a Marine corporal's salary."

"I concur, Sir. In fact, I ordered him to go to one of those gambler's anonymous groups for help. He started about three weeks ago."

"Was he making any progress?" Ziva inquired.

"Maybe a little. He told me he was trying his best to kick the habit."

"You said Conti's best friend was a Corporal Chambers?"

"Yes, Ma'am. He's another LAV driver."

"We'd like to speak with him, too."

"I'll get him for you."

"Thank you." Ziva nodded. "And thank you for your help, Lieutenant."

Hackett clicked his heels together and nodded. "Ma'am. Sir." He spun on his heel and marched back to the classroom.

A minute later another Marine exited the classroom and headed over to them. He couldn't have been more than five-seven with a lean build and a compact face.

"Sir. Ma'am. The Lieutenant said you wanted to see me."

"Yeah. I'm Agent DiNozzo, and that's Officer David. NCIS."

Chambers stiffened. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down. Ziva narrowed her eyes a little, taking note of the reaction.

"We wanted to talk to you about Corporal Conti," Tony said. "Lieutenant Hackett told us you two were best buds."

"Uh, yes, Sir." The corners of Chambers' mouth twitched. He looked away from them.

"Yeah. Hey, I know how hard this is, losing a friend and all."

Chambers' face scrunched, as though he was trying to contain a break down. "I . . . I've known Tom since Boot Camp. Served in Iraq together. He . . . he was a good guy."

"I'm sure he was." Tony shot him a quick, sympathetic smile. "So were you with him at all the night he was killed?"

Ziva noticed Chambers' jaw clench for a few moments before he spoke. "Um, just at the mess hall for dinner. Then . . . then after that he left."

"And you didn't go with him?" Ziva asked.

"Um, no, Ma'am."

"Any idea why he'd be at the beach?" asked Tony.

Chambers shook his head. "Uhhh, no, Sir. I don't know."

"Maybe he was going to see his girlfriend," Ziva mentioned. "Lieutenant Hackett told us he was seeing a girl from one of the local high schools."

"Yeah. Um, Helena. But they broke up last month."

"What was the reason?"

Again, Chambers looked away from Ziva.

"Is it about his gambling problem?"

The young Marine whipped his head back to her.

"Lieutenant Hackett mentioned that to us."

Chambers frowned, looking at his boots. "Yeah. Um, yeah, Ma'am. Tom convinced Helena to steal money from her mom, to help with some of his gambling debts, you know. But she got caught and her Mom threatened to kick her out of the house if she kept seeing Tom."

"Could Conti and Helena be sneaking around her mother's back?" Tony shrugged.

"Um, I . . . I don't think so."

"Was Corporal Conti having problems with anyone?" Ziva asked.

"What . . . What kind of problems?"

"Fights. Not getting along with people. NCOs or officers being too hard on him."

"Um, no. No, Ma'am."

"Did you two have any problems?"

Chambers swallowed again. His mouth hung open silently for a second before he spoke. "N-No, Ma'am. He was my best friend. We were good, you know?"

Ziva slowly nodded. She turned to Tony, giving him a knowing look. He nodded back and turned to Chambers.

"Well, thanks for your time, Corporal. You can head back to class now."

"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. Ma'am."

Chambers headed back down the hall, walking so fast Ziva was tempted to call it a trot.

Tony folded his arms and looked to her. "You thinkin' the same thing I am?"

"I believe I am. Corporal Chambers is hiding something."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_


	4. Chapter 4

Night began to set in when Ziva and Tony returned to Camp Lejeune. After speaking with Lieutenant Hackett and Corporal Chambers, they headed to Morehead City to talk to Conti's ex-girlfriend, Helena Bailey. They went to her high school, where the principal called her down to the main office. The girl already knew about Conti's death from the news, and cried throughout the entire interview. It turned out Helena had received a couple text messages from Conti recently. She hadn't responded to them, fearing her mother would make good on her threat to kick her out of the house. When Ziva asked her whereabouts the night of Conti's death, Helena responded she'd been at a friend's house. She directed her and Tony to said friend, who confirmed this.

Next they contacted Helena's mother. That woman certainly had reason to confront Conti, maybe even threaten him with a gun. But it turned out the night Conti died, Miss Bailey had been working as a waitress at a local Denny's, which was confirmed by several employees at the restaurant.

"Well, let's hope The Boss and McGee had better luck than we did," Tony said as he drove their SUV through the main gate of Camp Lejeune. "Damn! And I liked the mother, too."

Ziva turned to him, brow furrowed. "I wouldn't think her your type. She was a bit overweight, had to be in her fifties . . ."

"I meant as a suspect, David. Not for . . . ugh!" Tony shuddered. "I even had this great theory worked out in my head."

"And what was that?"

"Well, obviously Miss Bailey had to be mighty POed with Corporal Conti convincing her daughter to pilfer money from her. She could have discovered the text messages Conti sent her daughter, maybe called him up to arrange a face-to-face. Conti invites her out here. She pulls a gun on him and says, 'Stay away from my precious daughter or else.' Next thing you know, Abby's cryptid, or whatever, happens by and thinks, 'dinner time!' It takes down Conti. Miss Bailey fires three shots, misses, then books outta there. She obviously wouldn't call anyone because, well, she's scared the cops may find out she threatened Conti. Of course, since she has an alibi, that theory goes right out the window."

"I don't know. You have some valid points."

"Really?" Tony snapped his head toward her. "Is that a compliment, David? Should I be expecting more of those? Like how I have a gorgeous smile or great abs."

"Oh, I'll give you compliments on those last two things . . . if you ever get them."

Tony scowled at her.

"Anyway," she continued. "You can take out Miss Bailey, replace her with someone else, and your theory does have validity."

"By 'someone else,' do you mean Corporal Chambers?"

"Well, we know he's hiding something."

"They were also best friends. So why would he want to threaten Conti?"

Ziva chewed on her lip. "Well, Conti did amass a huge gambling debt. He could have asked Chambers to loan him some money. Conti doesn't pay him back, Chambers gets upset and threatens him. But that animal attacks before anything is resolved."

Tony shook his head. "Nothing like money troubles to ruin a friendship. See, that's why I never borrow money from you guys."

Ziva gasped in shock. "Excuse me? Who asked me for five dollars last week because you didn't have enough to tip the pizza delivery man?"

"Okay, that was one time. And it was only five bucks. And I paid you back."

"Actually, you didn't."

Tony hit the brakes. Ziva's seatbelt was the only thing keeping her from slamming into the dashboard.

"Tony! What the hell?"

He dug into his pants pocket, pulled out his wallet and extracted a five dollar bill.

"Here." He stuffed the bill into her hand. "I don't feel like waking up with you holding a knife to my throat because I didn't pay you back."

She looked over the bill, grinned and put it in her pocket.

A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the building that housed base security. Colonel Walling had set aside a couple offices for the NCIS team. She and Tony found Gibbs and McGee in one of them.

"Find anything at Morehead City?" Gibbs asked as he leaned against the desk.

Tony ran down the details of their interviews with Helena Bailey and her mother.

"At least we eliminated those two as possibilities on who could have been with Conti when he was attacked," Tony concluded his report. "So, you guys find anything interesting back here?"

"Maybe." Gibbs turned to McGee, sitting at the desk, a laptop opened in front of him. "McGee. Show them what you found."

"Okay. Uh, well, I was able to recover a couple things that might be relevant from Corporal Conti's computer here. It was really easy, too. The guy had absolutely no security programs installed. No encryption software, no firewalls, not even anti-virus programs. I had no trouble getting into his files."

"Well, thank God for that," said Tony.

"I know. It saved me a lot of time."

"That's not what I meant, Probie. I meant thank God because we won't have to listen to all your technobabble about algorithms this and string attacks that."

The corners of McGee's mouth twisted.

Gibbs shot Tony a harsh look. He grinned sheepishly and looked down at his shoes.

"Um, anyway," McGee continued. "Since Corporal Conti was killed by an animal, I thought this picture was pretty interesting."

He tapped a few keys. Ziva and Tony took up position behind him as a photo appeared on the screen. She furrowed her brow as she studied it. The image was rather blurred. She thought she could make out some sort of face, one with white or gray hair. But it was hard to tell.

There was, however, no mistaking the fierce, yellow eyes.

"Okay. So what the hell is that?" Tony drew his head back, a perplexed look on his face.

McGee shrugged. "I have no idea. It looks like it was taken rather quickly with a phone camera."

"What then?" asked Tony. "Whoever was with Conti took a snap shot of the animal that attacked him, then came back here and loaded the image onto Conti's computer? What the hell for?"

"I-I don't know. I'm just saying that this could mean something."

"Uh-huh." Tony sighed and folded his arms. "Please tell me you have something else that makes more sense."

"Well, um, I did look over Conti's internet usage over the past two weeks. The one thing that stood out was three days before his death, he went to D-I-A dot mil twice."

"DIA?" Ziva spoke. "As in Defense Intelligence Agency."

"Uh-huh." McGee nodded.

Tony looked even more perplexed. "Why would a Marine armored vehicle jockey be interested in the DIA website?"

"I don't know," Gibbs answered. "But more and more it looks like there was something funny going on between Conti and whoever else was out there when that animal attacked."

"Maybe it's time to talk to Corporal Chambers again." Ziva looked around at the rest of the team. "And this time, press him until he tells us everything."

**XXXXX**

Sergeant Phil Thiessen continued to scowl as he followed the pot-bellied, middle-aged man through the calf-high shrubbery near the beach.

_Why the hell do we need a civilian to help us? _This was the sort of mission tailor-made for the Marines. Search and destroy. Though instead of enemy soldiers or terrorists, their target happened to be an animal.

_An animal that killed a fellow Marine._

The attack happened on their base, so they should be allowed to handle it themselves. But since an animal had been responsible for this Corporal Conti's death, the federal government, in its "infinite wisdom," decided to bring in officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take the lead in this hunt. Colonel Walling had assigned Thiessen and several other MPs to tag along with the FWS people, A, for back-up, and B, because you just don't let civilians roam around a U.S. military installation on their own.

Still, he hated playing babysitter to some government puke old enough to be his father.

_I should be out here in a four-man squad, or maybe in a Hummer with a fifty cal. Not with a guy who may keel over from a heart attack if any crap goes down._

They stopped at the edge of a small retention pond. The Fish and Wildlife guy, Garber, shined his flashlight on the muddy water. That forced Thiessen to push his night vision goggles onto the top of his field cap. He groaned to himself. He'd asked Garber if he wanted his own pair of NVGs, but he declined.

"I'd rather do this with my own eyeballs," he'd said. "Have them adjust to the darkness themselves."

_Idiot. _You could see a hell of a lot better in the darkness with the NVGs, even though it turned everything a phosphorescent green.

"Well, no gators down there," Garber announced.

Thiessen scrunched his face in confusion. "I thought they said they didn't know what kind of animal killed Corporal Conti."

"Well there are only two sorts of animals around here that could have ripped apart your Marine like that. A bear or a gator."

"But I saw the photos of the footprints. They didn't look like ones from a bear or an alligator." _Or so said Colonel Walling._

Garber grunted. "I saw those photos, too. I don't know why they looked the way they did. But gators and bears are the only large predators in this whole state. So it's gotta be one or the other. Now come on."

Thiessen sighed and followed the Fish and Wildlife officer. He supposed it had to be one of the two. It certainly made more sense than one rumor fueled by a couple Carolina-born Marines. That Corporal Conti was killed by some local legend called the Lizard Man.

_Why can't morons like that do us all a favor and go into the Army instead?_

Lizard Man. Where the hell did people come up with that kind of crap?

"Alpha Seven, Home Plate. Check in," a voice burst in his earpiece.

Thiessen grabbed the radio clipped to his shoulder. "Home Plate, Alpha Seven. All clear."

"Roger, Seven," the Marine back at the operations center replied.

He and Garber continued on, approaching a line of bushes and tall weeds. The sound of the surf drifted up from the beach. He tried to tune it out, listening for any signs of leaves rustling or twigs snapping.

He heard none of that.

They moved further inland, the foliage getting denser. Thiessen kept sweeping his head back and forth. No sign of any animals. At least any large animals. Disappointment flowed through him. He actually wanted to find whatever killed his brother Marine and put it out of its misery. Maybe it was a stupid way to think. Animals didn't deliberately target Marines like a terrorist would. Still, it had killed a Marine, and if they didn't find it, it might kill more Marines. No way could he let that . . .

A rustling of leaves caught his attention.

He swung to the left, M-4 assault rifle raised. Garber also turned in the same direction, his .223 Remington rifle at the ready. Thiessen's eyes flickered over the vegetation. He held his breath, concentrating on any more noise.

A twig snapped. More leaves rustled. He whipped his M-4 right, icy pricks creeping up his spine. Part of a bush moved. Was it the wind or something else?

"Where are you?" he whispered. His finger curled around the trigger, fighting the urge to just spray the bush. _Don't fire until you have a visible target, _his training screamed at him.

Thiessen heard scuffling. He tried to ignore the sweat forming all over his body.

There! A shadow flashed between a bush and a clump of small trees.

"I got it," he told Garber in a hushed voice. Thiessen moved forward, M-4 aimed at the trees. His ears perked up. Fear swirled within him. He thought about Conti being eaten. A shiver went through him. He couldn't imagine how horrible that must have been.

Thiessen moved closer to the trees. He fought the temptation to look over his shoulder and see if Garber was behind him. He had to assume so. He hoped so. That was the problem working with civilians. You just didn't know.

He got within a foot of the trees. Despite his fear, he kept his breathing steady.

_Your ass is mine._

He leaned around the trees.

Weeds exploded next to him. He whirled around. A large, compact shape jumped out of the vegetation and slammed into him. Pain burst up and down Thiessen's left side. He fell to the ground. The M-4 tumbled from his hands.

A scream cut through the air. He rolled on his stomach.

_Oh my God._

Some . . . _thing_ straddled Garber. It brought up its hand, then dropped it in a flash. Garber screamed again, his legs kicking like mad.

Thiessen scrambled to his knees. He reached for his M-4 with one hand and grabbed his radio with the other.

"Home Plate! Home Plate! This is Alpha Seven! We're under attack! We're under . . ."

A piercing roar tore into his ears.

He looked up . . . and screamed.

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_


	5. Chapter 5

Ziva clenched her teeth when she and the rest of the team came upon Sergeant Thiessen. At least, she assumed it to be Thiessen. A bloody pile of flesh and bones lay before them. About a foot from the remains was an M-4 rifle. A boot also rested near the carcass, covered in blood. In the blaze of Gibbs' and Tony's flashlights, she could she strips of camouflage fatigues hanging from the bones. Both the boot and fatigues, what remained of them, were standard Marine issue.

Someone sighed harshly nearby. She turned and saw Colonel Walling staring at the bloody remains. Ziva frowned, sympathy building inside her. She sensed how much Thiessen's death affected the base security chief, as it would any good commander.

Walling clutched his shoulder radio tightly. "Home Plate, this is Bronze Six."

"Bronze Six, Home Plate. Go."

"I want all patrols doubled immediately. And put me in touch with General Ripley." He referred to the commanding officer of Camp Lejeune. "We need to get a couple rifle platoons out here, along with some Humvees and some helicopters."

"Roger, Bronze Six."

"Excuse me, Colonel." A round man with a thin beard stepped up to the Marine. Ziva recognized him. Kevin Gage, the man in charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife contingent. "If you have all those men and vehicles stomping and rolling around, that could likely scare off whatever animal did this. We need to keep this low key if we're going to find it."

"Low key?" Walling glared at the man. "I just lost one of my men, and I'll be damned if that thing is going to kill another. If I have to, I'll get every damn Devil Dog on this base to hunt down that son-of-a-bitch and blow it to hell!"

"You're making this personal, Colonel."

"Look at my Marine!" He stabbed a hand at the carcass. "You're damn right I'm making this personal."

"It's an animal. It didn't kill your man because he was a Marine. It killed him because it saw him as food."

"Guys!" Gibbs barked. "Let's have the pissing contest later. We've got a scene to process." He looked around at her, Tony and McGee. "Well?"

They went into action. McGee snapped pictures of devoured corpse. Gibbs interviewed the Marine and Fish and Wildlife officer who initially found Thiessen's remains.

"We were in the next grid over," stated the Marine. "Started over to Sergeant Thiessen's grid right after his last transmission. Finally found him, I don't know, a half-hour later, maybe?"

Ziva put on latex gloves and picked up Thiessen's M-4. She removed the magazine and checked it.

"A full clip." She shook her head. "Sergeant Thiessen never got off a single shot."

Tony photographed a Remington hunting rifle on the ground, then picked it up and examined it. "Looks like the same with Officer Garber. This rifle's got a full load."

"Whatever it was must have attacked fast." Ziva headed over to him.

"Must have. Now for the million dollar question." Tony swung back and forth. "Where on Earth is Officer Garber?"

Ziva took out her flashlight and swept it over the darkened woods. She found no sign of a second corpse.

_Maybe he got away. _If he had, wouldn't he try to contact the operations center?

_Unless he was hurt. _

_Or unless . . ._

She aimed her flashlight to the ground. The light revealed a couple patches of blood. Then she spotted flattened weeds, most of them smeared with blood. She tilted her flashlight up. The blood-stained, flattened weeds continued on and on.

"I've got a blood trail."

Tony came up next to her. "Maybe whatever it was dragged him back home. Stash him away for later."

"Track it down." Gibbs looked to Walling. "Colonel. Can you spare a couple of your MPs to back up my people?"

"Absolutely." Walling turned to the four MPs he'd brought with him. "Stephens. DeJesus. Go with 'em."

"Yes, Sir." A beefy young black man and a short but fit tan-skinned man jogged over to them.

"Keep your guns drawn at all times," Gibbs ordered.

"You don't have to tell me twice, Boss." Tony drew his Glock. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna wind up like Wayne Knight."

"What?" Ziva scrunched her face in bewilderment.

"Wayne Knight. You know, from _Jurassic Park._ He tried to get away with some dinosaur DNA to give it to another corporation, but he ran into some dinosaurs and got eaten."

Ziva rolled her eyes. Did everything in life remind Tony of a movie?

She moved her left arm, the one with the flashlight, in front of her, and rested her gun arm on top of it, ready to fire the moment she spotted a threat. Tony did the same. The two Marines clicked on the flashlights attached under the barrels of their M-4.

The blood trail continued. She ducked under a tree branch, her eyes flickering from the blood to in front of her. How far had this thing dragged Garber? Could he still be alive? She wanted to fan that faint hope. Reality would not let her.

Further into the woods they went. Ziva took slow, measured breaths, calming herself, fighting down her fears. She had to remain in control. If she let emotions rule her . . .

Was that a grunt?

She withdrew her left arm from under her right and held up her hand. She sensed everyone stop behind her.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered.

Another distant grunt carried through the night.

"I heard that," Tony replied in a hushed voice.

Ziva stood still, concentrating.

Seconds later she heard another grunt, followed by some rustling.

She waved the others forward. This time she kept her eyes up, scanning left to right with her flashlight.

The ground dropped off in front of her. The grunting grew louder. So did another sound. Was that . . . crunching?

A shiver went up her spine. She had a bad idea what was happening to Officer Garber.

She halted at the edge of a shrub-covered ravine. Holding her breath, she lowered her flashlight.

_What the hell?_

Her eyes widened. The beam illuminated a squat, furry animal bent over a bloody carcass. At first, Ziva thought it was a bear. But no. The head looked wrong. Plus its fur was white. It remained her of some weird albino gorilla.

It whipped its head toward her. She stifled a gasp when she saw the sharp teeth protruding from its blood-covered mouth. And the eyes. Evil, blazing yellow.

Just like the eyes in that picture on Corporal Conti's computer.

The beast roared and charged up the ravine.

Ziva squeezed the trigger of her Glock. An instant later the roar of weapons fire surrounded her. The beast howled and twitched.

But it still kept coming.

Ziva fired until her pistol clicked empty. She reached for a fresh clip in her belt.

"Look out!"

The world flashed by. Ziva hit the ground. Pain stabbed her shoulder. Something heavy lay on top of her. Panic swelled within her. Was it the beast?

An instant later she realized it was Tony.

A scream went up. Ziva slid out from under her partner. The beast knelt over DeJesus, its mouth buried in the Marine's neck. Stephens fired his M-4 until it ran dry. He then grabbed barrel, let out a war cry and rushed over to the beast. Stephens raised his rifle and brought it down on the animal's back.

It twisted around and roared.

Stephens took another swing and nailed the beast in the head. It barely phased it. The beast drew back its arm and lashed out at Stephens. The Marine flew across the ground . . .

. . . and slammed into Tony!

Ziva watched an object fly out of his hand. It looked like his Glock. Tony lay on his back, groaning, trying to right himself.

A roar made Ziva snap her head around.

The beast glared at her with its yellow eyes.

She swallowed, then reached for another clip.

The beast charged at her on all fours. She knew she'd never reload her Glock in time. Terror surged through her, threatening to paralyze her.

_Fight! Fight!_

She flipped around her pistol and held it by the barrel, ready to use it as a little club. Of course, Stephens used his M-4 as a club and that didn't work.

_Maybe if I hit it in the eye._

Ziva raised her pistol.

The beast was almost on top of her.

A flash of light exploded in the darkness. The beast roared and skidded to a halt.

_What? _She glanced to her right.

Tony was up on one knee, holding up his camera. He took another shot. Another. The strobe flashed over the beast's face. It roared, jerking its body and waving a clawed hand over its face. Tony kept taking pictures. The beast became more enraged. Or frightened?

With a final roar, it turned away, hurried back down the ravine, and out of sight.

"Tony." She slid over to him. "Are you all right?"

He was breathing hard and rubbing his chest. She wondered if the camera had jammed into his chest when Stephens hit him. "Yeah. Couldn't be better. You?"

"Fine. Thanks." She gave him a little smile.

Tony shrugged. "Hey. I couldn't let that things eat you. The world can't have enough beautiful-yet-psychotic women." He grinned wide.

Ziva slapped him upside the head. Why couldn't he just say, "You're welcome," like a normal human being?

_Because then it wouldn't be Tony._

"DiNozzo! Ziva!"

She turned and saw Gibbs running toward them, weapon drawn. McGee and Colonel Walling were right behind him.

"We're fine, Gibbs. But the Marines are hurt."

Walling bent over DeJesus and pressed a hand on the young man's throat. He withdrew his hand and lowered his head.

McGee knelt beside Stephens, who groaned and clutched his mid-section. Ziva guessed the Marine had broken ribs, but at least he was alive.

"I got it, Boss." Tony patted his camera. "Thing was going after Ziva, and I had my gun knocked out of my hand. Thought I'd use the camera flash to distract it. Instead the damn thing freaked out and ran off."

"So what was it?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva looked down the ravine where the beast had fled. "I have no idea."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_


	6. Chapter 6

The Marines were going to war.

That's the way it looked to Ziva as she and Tony drove through Camp Lejeune. Humvees and deuce-and-a-half trucks rumbled up and down the streets. Marines poured out of their barracks in full combat gear. Helicopters flew overhead.

Yes, the Marines were most definitely going to war. War with the creature that had killed three of their own.

She pressed her back into the passenger seat of the SUV, staring out the window. Her mind still tried to digest everything that had happened. Never in her life had she seen an animal like that. How many rounds had she, Tony and the two Marines unleashed at it? And it still kept coming! What kind of animal could survive a fusillade like that?

Tony turned right and drove between a pair of barracks and into a paved assembly area. A couple dozen Marines had gathered near a row of elongated eight-wheeled vehicles, each one with a slender gun protruding from a rear-mounted turret. LAV-25s, the USMC's primary light armored vehicle. These particular ones belonged to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.

The unit Corporal Chambers belonged to.

Ziva straightened in her seat, muscles tightening. After what had happened earlier tonight, she couldn't wait to interrogate Chambers.

_God help him if he doesn't tell us everything._

Tony parked the car across from the row of LAV-25s. They got out, Ziva observing the Marines around her. They squatted in small clusters, checking their weapons. Her eyes widened when she noticed what they carried. M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons, AT-4 rocket launchers, M-203 grenade launchers attached under the barrels of M-4 assault rifles.

The Marines wanted to kill this thing really, _really _bad.

She and Tony walked past a pair of Marines handling what looked like a model airplane. In reality, Ziva knew it to be a small reconnaissance drone. She narrowed her eyes and scanned the assembly area, looking for Chambers.

No luck.

_He is a driver. He's probably in one of the LAVs._

"Lieutenant!" She heard Tony call. She followed his gaze to an LAV-25, where she spotted Chambers' CO, Lieutenant Hackett, standing by the sloped hood.

"Agent DiNozzo. Officer David." He nodded to them as they approached. "I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of time to spare. We're moving out ASAP to find this . . . hell, no one even knows what it is that killed our Marines."

"We think Corporal Chambers might," she stated.

"Chambers?" A harsh look came over the Lieutenant's face. "You have to be kidding me."

"No joke." Tony shook his head. "The creature that killed those Marines, we found an image of it on his buddy Conti's computer."

Hackett drew his head back. "How is that even possible?"

"We have no idea," Ziva answered. "That's why we need to talk to Corporal Chambers."

"You and me both, Ma'am."

She cranked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Hackett snorted. "Chambers isn't here. I sent one of my men to check his quarters, had another call his cell phone. Nothing. He's gone."

She whipped her head to Tony. He met her gaze, a knowing look spreading over his face. "Any more doubt that Corporal Chambers is up to his ass in this monster business?"

Lieutenant Hackett glared. "Well if you find his ass, save a piece for me. Because I want to chew it out!"

**XXXXX**

While the Marines searched for the beast, she and Tony rendezvoused with Gibbs and McGee at Chambers' quarters. She learned from Gibbs that Colonel Walling had dispatched a few MPs to scour the base for the missing corporal. The operative word being "few." Nearly every Marine on base had been assigned to the search for the creature. And Camp Lejeune was a huge installation. Ziva doubted a handful of MPs would be able to find one man.

_If he's even on the base._

Ziva figured Chambers fled Camp Lejeune when word got out about the latest attacks. So did Gibbs, apparently, as he put a BOLO out on the corporal for the civilian authorities. Hopefully, the police would find him soon.

Meantime, she rummaged through Chambers' foot locker, while Tony checked the small closet next to the bed, which Gibbs was looking over. McGee sat at a desk working on the corporal's lap top.

_He must have been in a big hurry to leave that behind._

Ziva frowned with every article she examined. Socks. Underwear. DVDs. A handheld video game system. None of it gave her a single clue as to what Chambers knew about the beast, or where he might have gone.

"Boss, I got something," McGee announced.

Gibbs set down the mattress he'd been checking under and straightened up. "What is it?"

"That image we found of that, um, animal on Corporal Conti's computer? Well, Corporal Chambers has the same image on his."

Gibbs leaned closer to the computer screen. "So maybe Chambers sent Conti a copy of this, or vice versa."

"Not by e-mail," McGee noted. "I would've found that on Corporal Conti's computer. He might have passed it along to him on a thumb drive."

Gibbs silently nodded. "Anything else?"

"Actually, yes. I was going over Corporal Chambers' internet usage, and it looks like he was also visiting the DIA web site."

Tony's brow furrowed. "Okay. So why are _two_ Marine corporals so interested in the DIA?"

"More importantly," Gibbs glanced at him, "does it have anything to do with the animal that attacked you and Ziva?"

Tony lowered his head, appearing deep in thought.

_Is that even possible for Tony?_

"I got it!" His head snapped up. "That thing's some sort of bio-weapons experiment that got loose."

She, Gibbs and McGee gazed at him in silence.

"C'mon. You know, like in _Watchers._" His eyes flickered among the three of them, eager for a response.

"_Watchers? _Corey Haim, Michael Ironside. The movie based on the Dean Koontz novel. A monster escapes from the government lab and kills a bunch of people. Oh yeah, and it's also psychically linked to a Golden Retriever. They also made a sequel to it."

Ziva rolled her eyes.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs held up his index and bent it back and forth.

"Oh, c'mon, Boss. I was just . . ." Tony sighed and leaned forward.

Gibbs whacked him upside the head. He then looked to her and McGee. "Does anyone have a theory that actually makes sense?"

Ziva stifled a sardonic laugh. Nothing about this case made sense. The only one who could probably make sense of it was Corporal Chambers.

And God only knew where he was.

**XXXXX**

Ziva lay back on her blanket, the cool, salty sea breeze washing over her bikini-clad body. She lazily looked left and right. Not another soul occupied this beach in Eilat.

She smiled and closed her eyes, savoring the day. No work, no stress. Just absolute, total, wonderful relaxation. What she wouldn't give for more days like this. Many more days.

Something growled close by.

Her eyes snapped open. She sat up.

The beast crouched mere feet from her, teeth bared, its yellow eyes blazing.

She looked around. Where was her gun?

The beast roared and rushed toward her. She watched, frozen, as it bore down on her.

Something slapped her legs.

"Hey! Ziva! Rise and shine."

Her eyelids peeled back. The beach, and the creature, had vanished. She now found herself in a small lounge, lying on a couch. Tony stood over her, clutching a rolled up magazine, and wearing a goofy grin.

She groaned and rubbed her eyes. A glance at the window revealed sunlight filtering through the blinds. How long had she been asleep? Probably not long. It had been well after two in the morning when Gibbs dismissed them. With the Marines out hunting the beast and Corporal Chambers still on the run, it seemed the perfect time for the NCIS team to get some much-needed rest.

_Unless . . ._

"Did they find Chambers?"

Tony shook his head. "Nope."

"The animal?"

"Nope again. But we got a call from Abby. Looks like she may have turned up something. Gibbs wants us in the conference room."

Ziva stretched her arms over her head, exhaled, then got to her feet. "Let's go."

They exited the lounge. Tony looked over his shoulder. "Hope I didn't ruin any good dreams."

"Actually, you didn't. Well, parts of it weren't too bad."

"Really?" He spun around, walking backwards. "So was there a certain someone who made those parts not too bad?"

A sly smile creased Ziva's lips. "Yes. Someone not named Tony DiNozzo."

He frowned at her. "Oh well, better luck next time, David."

She moaned and shook her head.

Gibbs and McGee were already in the conference room when they arrived, with McGee's computer set up for video conferencing.

"All set?" McGee looked to the others. When Gibbs nodded, he tapped a couple keys.

Abby appeared on the screen, a bright smile on her face. "Good morning, sleepy heads!" She bounced on the balls of her feet.

Ziva winced. It was too early in the morning to be that cheerful. Of course, the huge cup of Caf-Pow on Abby's desk probably had something to do with the forensic scientist's disposition. And knowing Abby, that sugar and caffeine-laden drink was probably her second of the very young day. Maybe even her third.

"Morning, Abby," Gibbs greeted her.

Now a distressed look came over her face. "Oh! Tony. Ziva. Oh my God, are you guys okay?"

"Well," Tony replied, "since we're not moving through some monster's bowels right now, I'd say yeah, we're fine."

"Okay, first, ew. Second, thank God, because I was so worried . . ."

"What do you have for us, Abby?" Gibbs cut her off.

"All right! Well, I did all sorts of data base searches using those photos McGee sent over. And Tony, I heard you were using the camera to distract that thing, but oh my God, these shots are amazing. Man, this is one scary-looking monster. I don't know how you did it, but I woulda been running away . . ."

"Abs!"

"All right, all right. Jeez, Gibbs. Anyway, I ran the photos through every data base I could think of. No match."

"So you called us before seven just to tell us you have nothing?"

Abby put her hands on her hips. "Gibbs, you know better than to ask that. I didn't find any matches with the photos, but I did type in a description of our mystery animal and ran it through a search of all web sites that specialize in cryptids."

"And you found something there." It was more a statement than a question from Tony.

"Yeah, I did." Abby's black pigtails bobbed as she nodded. "Did you know that in the 1890s, Theodore Roosevelt published a book where he quoted a story this hunter told him about an encounter with a creature that may have been a Bigfoot. Oh! And then there were these miners back in 1924 who say a bunch of Bigfoots, or would it be Bigfeet? Anyway, they said they were attacked at their cabin near Mount Saint Helen, and . . ."

"And the point?" Gibbs demanded.

"Oh. Actually, those are just really cool facts I stumbled across. The one story I found that could be relevant to your case is from this site called Monster Attacks dot com. I e-mailed the link to McGee. In a nutshell, the guy who runs this site interviewed a college professor who used to work at Horlicks University."

"Where's that?" Tony wondered aloud.

"Princess Anne, Maryland."

"Hm." He canted his head. "Wonder if their basketball team's any good."

"And what did this professor have to say?" Gibbs asked before Tony could begin reminiscing about his basketball days at Ohio State.

"Well, according to him, he came across a creature matching the description of your cryptid back in 1982. He said he found it in some old wooden crate, and it got loose and killed three people."

"What happened then?" This from McGee.

Abby shrugged. "Don't know. The professor says the cryptid just disappeared."

The corners of Gibbs' mouth twisted. "It sounds a little far-fetched, Abs. Some animal popping out of a crate and going on a rampage at a university. You'd think something like that would make the news. Besides, how many web sites are there out there that put out bullcrap stories they pass off as the gospel truth?"

"Ah!" Abby held up a finger. "But I did some checking with the Princess Anne Police. It turns out that in 1982 there _were_ three people connected to Horlicks University who vanished without a trace. A janitor named Mike Latimer, a grad student named Charlie Gereson, and Wilma Northrup, who was the wife of one of the English professors there. None of their bodies were ever found."

Ziva's lips tightened. Could this story be true? Could this creature, or another like it, have gone on a killing spree at this school? Without the public even knowing about it?

_Just when this situation couldn't get any stranger. _She sighed to herself, yearning to investigate a simple murder that didn't involve monsters and science fiction-type stories on the web and conspiracies involving the DIA.

"Do you have the name of the person running that web site?" asked Gibbs.

"I've got something better. They named the guy who they interviewed for this story. Dexter Stanley. I checked, and he was a biology professor at Horlicks for fifteen years. He's not there any more, but he is at an assisted living facility in Ocean City."

A thoughtful look came over Gibbs' face. "DiNozzo. Ziva." He said no more. A simple look conveyed what he wanted them to do.

Tony grinned. "All right. I'll grab the Bob Seger CDs, Ziva, you grab the chips and the Doctor Pepper. We're goin' on a road trip."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_Okay. Now you have some clues to work with as to where this monster came from. If you're into certain horror movies from the 1980s, you may already know. If not, all will be revealed soon. Also, the "monster attacks" web site is a product of my imagination. Any resemblance to a real-life sight is purely coincidental._


	7. Chapter 7

Ziva and Tony didn't get their "road trip." Instead, Colonel Walling arranged for a V-22 Osprey to fly them to Ocean City. At first, she was rather intrigued at the prospect of being on an aircraft that could fly like a regular plane, then tilt its two wingtip propellers up to fly like a helicopter.

That thrill didn't last long. The Osprey felt no different than most other military aircraft she had been on. And the seats! She'd sat on rocks more comfortable. Then again, the main purpose of these transports was to haul as much men and material from Point A to Point B as possible. Comfort didn't seem an important factor to the people who designed and built these things.

After landing at Ocean City Municipal Airport, she and Tony rented a car and drove to the Seabreeze Assisted Living Home, an elongated white clapboard structure situated on a small hill at the end of a row of beach houses. The scent of salt clung to the air, and the crashing surf could be clearly heard.

Ziva tensed as they approached the main desk. Her eyes darted to a large common room where several gray-haired occupants gathered to watch TV. Most of them sat in wheelchairs. Some, she could tell from their vacant gazes, had lost all touch with the world around them.

She suppressed a shudder. Her heart went out to these people. She prided herself in being active, mainly through jogging and martial arts, which helped maintain her slender, athletic form. She didn't want to think about not being able to do those things any more. To just sit around, existing, watching the remaining minutes of your life tick away.

"Excuse me." Tony's voice snapped her out of her reverie. He showed his ID to the portly nurse with curly brown hair and glasses behind the circular desk. "Agent DiNozzo and Officer David. NCIS. We're here to see a patient of yours. Dexter Stanley."

"Dexter? Why would you folks want to see him?"

Tony put on his best smile. "It's pertaining to a case we're working. Don't worry. He's not in trouble or anything. We just want to ask him a few questions."

The nurse eyed him suspiciously for a few moments. The corner of her mouth twisted. "All right. Follow me."

She led them down a couple of hallways until they came to the appropriate room.

"Dexter." She knocked on the already open door. "You have guests today."

Ziva peered into the room. She fought to keep the frown off her face. It looked so Spartan. A bed, a nightstand, a small closet and a bathroom. Nothing else.

_These people deserve better._ Then again, how many of them weren't even aware of their surroundings?

_Still . . ._

The nurse stepped aside, allowing her and Tony into the room. A thin, wrinkled man with wisps of gray hair sat up in the bed, rows of cards resting on a tray straddling his mid-section. Ziva's eyes darted to the nightstand. It had a vase of colorful flowers. No photos of any family members, however. Did the man even have any family?

"Mr. Stanley?" Tony approached the bed.

"Yes?"

"My name is Agent Tony DiNozzo, and this is Officer Ziva David. NCIS."

A quizzical look formed on his aged face. "What's that?"

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

The quizzical look remained on Mr. Stanley's face. "'Naval?' I was never in the Navy. Never in the military period for that matter. What would you want with me?"

"We just have a few questions we want to ask about a case we're investigating." Tony looked to the nurse. She took a final glance at Mr. Stanley before leaving the room.

"Why would I know anything about a case of yours?" The old man laid another card on his tray, continuing his game of solitaire. "I've been cooped up in here for the past year. Bad kidneys. Bad liver. Bad heart. Hell, at my age, bad everything."

"Actually," Ziva said, "we believe the case we're currently working on is connected to an incident that occurred at Horlicks University back in 1982."

Stanley froze. He held a card just above his tray.

She removed a photograph from her folder. "Mr. Stanley. Do you recognize this animal?" She laid it overtop his cards.

Stanley's eyes widened. His frail shoulders rose and fell with his audible breaths. He pressed himself deeper into his pillow, as if trying to put as much distance between him and the beast in the photo.

"So you have seen this thing before."

Nervous twitches took hold of his right cheek. "How . . . I . . . I . . .?"

"This photo was taken last night at Camp Lejeune," Ziva told him. "It's already killed four people. One of our investigators came across a web site called Monster Attacks dot com, and found an interview you gave about a similar creature killing three people at Horlicks University in 1982."

Stanley sighed and turned his head away from her and Tony. The old man closed his eyes and bit his lower lip. "I . . . I was three sheets to the wind when I talked to that guy. Ran into him at a bar a few years ago. Said he ran a web site about monsters attacking people. He kept talking, I kept drinking, and then . . . well, I thought he was spewing all kinds of horse hockey, so I told him if he wanted to hear about a real monster attack, I had a story for him. Never thought he'd post it. Especially with my name in the story. Heh! Like it matters. Like I had any sort of reputation to be concerned with at that point."

"So the story's true," said Ziva.

Stanley nodded, his eyes shut tight. She wondered if the old man may cry.

"What exactly happened that night?" asked Tony, pen and notebook at the ready.

Stanley exhaled and looked back at them. "I was working late, and me and the janitor, Mike, we found this old crate underneath the basement stairs."

"Any idea how old?" Ziva put to him.

"Actually, yes. It was labeled from an Arctic expedition from 1834. Said it contained some sort of specimen. We opened it and Mike . . ." Stanley's eyes began to water. "It grabbed him. Pulled him into the crate and . . . and . . . oh God. All that blood."

Stanley's breathing quickened. Ziva feared the man might have a heart attack.

"Um, Mr. Stanley." She held up a hand. "Just take your time and tell us what happened."

The old man calmed down . . . a little. "I . . . I ran. Just ran. That's when I saw Charlie, one of my grad students. We went back to the lab, but that monster was gone. So was the crate. We tracked it back down to the basement and . . . and it got Charlie." He emitted a raspy sob. "It ate him alive."

"What did you do after that?" asked Ziva.

"I left. I couldn't go to the police. They wouldn't believe me if I told them a monster killed Mike and Charlie. They might think I had something to do with it. So I went to see Henry."

"Henry?" asked Tony.

"Henry Northrup, my friend. He was an English professor at Horlicks. He believed me. But after I told him about what happened, he slipped me some sleeping pills. When I woke up, he told me he lured his wife into the basement where we found that thing and . . . and it killed her, too."

"And you didn't tell the police?" Ziva's eyes narrowed. Her sympathy for the man waned.

"I was afraid to. I didn't want to get Henry in trouble. Besides, his wife was a bitch. A drunken, foul-mouthed shrew of a woman. He was better off without her."

"What about the creature?" She stepped closer to Stanley's bed. "What happened after it killed Professor Northrup's wife?"

"Henry managed to lock it in its crate. Then he took it to some lake. I don't know where. He never told me. He dumped it in the lake."

"Are you still in touch with Professor Northrup?"

He shook his head. "No. He passed away about ten years ago." His face scrunched in a mixture of anger and fear. "How . . . how could it have gotten loose?"

"Don't know." Tony shook his head. "That's what we're trying to find out."

"I don't understand," Ziva said. "How could it have survived nearly a century-and-a-half locked in a crate? Then how does it survive being dumped into a lake without drowning?"

"I don't know." Stanley's jaw trembled. "Maybe some sort of hibernation we don't know anything about. Maybe it's not even from this planet. This thing was a completely unknown species."

Ziva blinked. _Oh please. Not aliens. _This case was weird enough as is.

"Can it be killed?" she inquired.

Stanley shrugged. "I suppose. All living things can be killed."

"I hope so," Ziva responded. "Because that thing withstood a few dozen rounds of pistol and rifle fire and survived."

Stanley sighed. "I . . . I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you need to get bigger guns."

"I like that idea." Tony grinned.

"Anything else you can tell us about this thing?" Ziva leaned closer to the former biology professor. "Its behavior, its weaknesses."

"Well, I suppose you already know it's highly aggressive."

"Yeah, we learned that the hard way." Tony scowled.

Stanley stared at the ceiling for a few moments. "It's probably nocturnal, considering it stuck to dark places at the school."

Ziva nodded. "That would explain why it ran away when Tony hit it with multiple camera flashes."

Stanley chewed on his lower lip for a few moments before continuing. "The crate. That could be the key. It seemed to me like that was its, I don't know, its sanctuary. You find that crate, you'll find that monster." He exhaled loudly and turned to them, a pleading look on his wrinkled face. "You have to find it. You have to find it and kill it."

"Believe me, we're trying." Tony nodded.

They thanked Mr. Stanley for his time and left the room.

"What do you think is going to happen to him now?" Ziva asked as they approached the glass door exit.

Tony turned to her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, once we turn in our report on Dexter Stanley, I would imagine some sort of legal action will have to be taken against him."

"What? You gotta be kidding."

"Tony." She pushed open the door and stepped outside. "The man admitted to covering up a murder."

"Okay. Yeah, he did. But that man is also, what, eighty or something, and he doesn't look like he's gonna be alive and kicking for much longer. What, you want to put him in jail?"

Ziva bit her lip as they approached their rental car. Age and health shouldn't exclude someone from punishment.

_Maybe what he's going through now is punishment enough._

_No. What he's going through now is the natural way of things._

She settled into the passenger seat, her mind still debating whether Dexter Stanley should face the full extent of the law or not. Then again, that would ultimately be someone else's decision, not hers.

After calling Gibbs with the information Stanley provided them, they stopped for lunch at some little diner, where their interview with Dexter Stanley somehow led to Tony going on about the greatest horror movies of all-time, number one for him being _The Exorcist._

"That was a . . . well-done film," she admitted to him. Though what she wouldn't admit was that the film scared the living hell out of her . . . and she'd been seventeen when she saw it. To this day she couldn't bring herself to watch it. It maddened her to no end. She could stay cool in a firefight, but a film, a piece of make believe, made her want to hide under her couch.

God help her if Tony ever found out that fact.

_If he did, I may have to kill him._

They returned to the airport and boarded the Osprey for the return flight to North Carolina. When they landed at Marine Corps Air Station New River, adjacent to Camp Lejeune, Gibbs was there waiting for them.

"Please tell me you found the damn monster," Tony said as they walked away from the tarmac.

"We didn't. But you two need to stick around here. As soon as that Osprey is refueled, I need you to head over to Lenoir."

"Lenoir?" Tony's brow furrowed. "Why there, Boss?"

"Because that's where the State Highway Patrol is holding Corporal Chambers."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_Surprise, surprise! You have entered an NCIS crossover! The story told by Dexter Stanley is straight out of the 1982 anthology horror movie "Creepshow," the segment titled "The Crate." Yes, we've got ourselves an NCIS/Creepshow Crossover. _


	8. Chapter 8

"Corporal Chambers. We've been looking for you."

Ziva eyed the young Marine, who sat at a simple wooden table in a holding room of the Highway Patrol's Lenoir barracks. His right wrist was handcuffed to the table. He also made no eye contact with either her or Tony.

She took a seat across from him, while Tony stood against the wall, arms folded.

"Actually . . ." She intertwined her fingers and stared directly at the crestfallen Corporal. "We're not the only ones who had been wondering what happened to you. Your commanding officer, Lieutenant Hackett, was rather anxious to know why everyone in his platoon assembled when the order was sent out, except for you."

Chambers glanced at her. "I . . . uh . . . uh . . . I had to . . . uh . . ."

"Lemme guess," said Tony. "Your CO sent you out to pick up a bag of ice, or you had to return a movie to Blockbuster before you could go hunt the monster, or you had to come all the way out here to Lenoir to fill your canteen because the water here is just so good."

Chambers lowered his head as Tony continued. "Whatever load of bullcrap you're thinking of serving up to us, forget it. We've been through your quarters, we saw the image of that thing you and your buddy Conti shared."

"And let's not forget the other piece of incriminating evidence we found." Ziva never took her eyes off Chambers. "Or rather, the highway patrolman who spotted you at that gas station found it in your glove compartment." She checked her notes. "A Hi Point 34010 semi-automatic pistol. Forty caliber, the same as the shell casings we found near the remains of Corporal Conti. I believe forensics will match your gun to those rounds."

She leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "So, Corporal Chambers. Care to talk?"

Chambers' breathing quickened. He whipped his head left, then right, nervousness radiating from his face.

"Corporal." An edge emerged in Ziva's tone. "You're already in a lot of trouble. The Marines don't look kindly on one of their own abandoning their post. And now it appears that you had knowledge of a dangerous animal running loose on your base and did not alert anyone to its presence. Because of that, three more people besides your friend are dead. Talk to us now, and your cooperation may be taken into consideration at your court martial. Otherwise, you will be spending a very long time in a military prison, maybe even the rest of your life."

Chambers finally looked up at her, visibly shaking. "I . . . I'm sorry. I-I was scared. I didn't . . . I didn't mean for anyone to get killed."

"So what happened?" Tony aimed a harsh gaze at him. "How did you find that animal?"

Chambers slumped in his chair, staring at his lap. "The . . . The other week, I was looking around the beach. Some of the guys in my platoon said that pirates used to hide treasure in the caves along the beach, so I went looking for it. I didn't find anything in the first few caves I went into. But then . . . then I went into this one cave, and there was this crate there."

"What did the crate look like?" asked Ziva.

"It was wood. Big."

"Anything written on it?"

"Uh, yeah. Somebody wrote on it 'Arctic Expedition, 1834.'"

"Don't you mean you found it in a lake?"

Chambers gave her a perplexed look. "Ma'am?"

"Well, it's just we have information that puts the crate you found at the bottom of a lake. So how did it get from the lake to this cave?"

The Marine's mouth hung open silently for several seconds. "Ma'am, I . . . I don't know nothin' about a lake."

"Then how did the crate get into this cave?"

"I don't know," he answered frantically. "I swear, I don't know anything about this thing being in a lake. I found it in the cave. Maybe someone else put it there before."

Ziva studied Chambers' face. The young man's eyes widened, pleading with her.

_Maybe he is telling the truth. _She decided to accept that . . . for now.

"So what happened when you found the crate?"

He took a few breaths to settle himself before answering. "It was locked, but I was able to lift the lid a bit. That's when the whole thing started shaking, and there was this growl that came from it. I got out my phone and held it up to the opening and snapped a picture. I didn't know what it was. Some sort of monster. I was gonna tell the lieutenant about it, really I was. But then . . ."

"Then what?" Ziva insisted.

"Well, I thought maybe I could make some money off it. And I told Tom about it. He had all these gambling debts, and I thought this would help him out."

"How were you planning to make money off this animal?" she asked.

"The major who commanded the first unit I was assigned to after I finished training on the LAV-25, Major Simmons, I heard he got promoted and got assigned to the DIA. And, well, you know all those movies on Sci-Fi Channel, where they have the military create giant monsters and stuff. Well, I thought the DIA might be interested in what I found."

Ziva blinked and tilted her head. _You have to be kidding me._

Chambers continued. "We went on the DIA's web site, but we couldn't find any e-mail for Major Simmons. I thought maybe they might have some kind of science department or something, but we couldn't find that either."

"Yeah, I doubt the DIA is gonna advertise 'Experiments With Monsters' on their web site." Tony gave the Marine a sarcastic grin.

Chambers frowned.

"What happened next?" asked Ziva.

"Tom said we needed to have a better picture of this thing, otherwise no one at the DIA would believe us. So I got some bolt cutters and a new lock. We were gonna open the crate real quick, take a picture, and close it and lock it fast."

She inwardly groaned. _I can see where this is going._

"I had Tom open it while I held the camera. But the thing tried to get out of the crate. Tom slammed the lid on it a couple times, but the thing kept pushing back. Finally we just booked outta there. But . . . it came after us. It got Tom and . . . and I had my Hi Point, just in case, and shot it. Nothing." He shook his head. "It didn't even feel it. So I ran. I left Tom to die. I mean, Marines aren't supposed to leave their buddies behind, right? But what could I do?"

"And you didn't report this to anyone?" Ziva didn't attempt to hide the disgust in her voice.

Chambers shook her head. "No. I couldn't. I'd get into trouble."

"Newsflash, Corporal Genius," Tony said. "You're already in trouble."

The Marine's jaw quivered.

"I take it the cave is close to where you left Corporal Conti?"

Chambers nodded in response to Ziva's question.

"How far away?"

"Sixty, seventy meters. Right in that rocky outcropping."

Ziva looked to Tony and nodded. He nodded back. She got up and headed for the door, Tony following. Chambers folded his arms on the table and lowered his head onto them.

"So what do you think?" Tony jerked a thumb toward the door after Ziva closed it.

"About what?"

"Chambers. Did you hear all that stuff? Trying to sell a monster to the DIA. And the pirates and hidden treasure? He actually bought that load of crap?"

"I'll admit, he doesn't seem very bright."

Tony snorted. "That's generous. I think he and Conti were made for one another. How smart could that guy have been to go along with a moronic plan like that?"

"Chambers may be an idiot, but at least he told us where that crate is. And since it's still daylight, the creature's probably sleeping in it right now."

"Meaning the Marines can blow the cave and bye-bye ape monster." Tony grinned at the thought.

"We'd better tell Gibbs." She took out her cell phone. Gibbs answered on the second ring.

"What do you have, Ziva?"

She ran down Corporal Chambers' confession.

"I'll pass along the cave's location to Colonel Walling. Meanwhile, you and DiNozzo bring Chambers back here."

"We will." She hung up after he did and stuffed the cell phone back in her pocket. Then she turned to Tony. "Gibbs wants us to bring Corporal Chambers back with us to Camp Lejeune."

"Good. Let's get him and go."

Ziva cranked an eyebrow. "Why the hurry?"

A determined look set in on Tony's face. "Because I wanna have a front row seat when the Marines blow that monster to hell."

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_


	9. Chapter 9

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_The following contains scenes of intense violence. You have been warned._

* * *

Ziva couldn't help but be stunned at the sight that greeted her when she stepped off the Osprey.

Well over a hundred Marines swarmed the beach. Several crouched in entrenchments, manning machine guns, anti-tank missiles and mortars. LAV-25s and Humvees with .50 caliber machine guns or grenade launchers were parked amongst the Marines. Two helicopters circled overhead. Thin, insectoid-like Huey SuperCobras, loaded with gatling guns and missiles.

Her eyes flickered from the choppers to the rocky stretch of beach about three hundred yards away. Somewhere there was the cave Corporal Chambers had told them about. The cave that contained the beast and its crate.

"Holy crap!" Tony gazed around the beach with wide eyes as he escorted a dejected-looking Chambers out of the aircraft. "Jeez. I'm surprised they didn't bring in a guided-missile cruiser or a B-1 bomber."

Ziva couldn't help but smirk at Tony's remark. Actually, she wouldn't have minded seeing a hundred more Marines and a dozen more combat vehicles here. In war, one should engage the enemy with _more_ than overwhelming force to ensure victory. As far as she was concerned, there couldn't be enough Marines here to finish off this man-eating . . . gorilla-thing.

She realized no one had actually given it an official name, not even Dexter Stanley after all these years.

_Something tells me he prefers to try and forget what happened at Horlicks University._

They could decide on a name later . . . after they killed it.

Ziva noticed five people approaching her. Colonel Walling and two of his MPs walked ahead of Gibbs and McGee.

"You got him." Walling nodded to the handcuffed Chambers. "Good job."

"S-Sir." Chambers shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm . . . I'm sorry about -"

"Shut the hell up!" Walling stomped over to Chambers. He got right in the young man's face and continued yelling. "Three Marines and a civilian are dead because of you! Do you understand that!? You knew about this thing the whole time and didn't tell anyone!"

Spittle dripped from the corner of Walling's mouth. Chambers turned away, on the verge of crying.

"You're a disgrace to the Corps." Walling glanced at his MPs. "Get this . . . _thing_ out of my sight."

"Yes, Sir." The MPs grabbed both of Chambers' arms and dragged him off to a nearby Humvee.

"So I guess we're in time to see the fireworks, Boss?" Tony grinned.

"Just waiting on you two. Come on." Gibbs waved for them to follow.

"So what's the plan?" asked Tony.

"We recon the cave to determine if the creature is still in there," Walling answered. "Then, if it is, we blow the hell out of it."

Tony looked up to the sky for a moment, then nodded. "I like that plan. Nice and simple."

Walling led them over to a Humvee. He opened the rear driver's side door, reached inside and pulled out a slender shotgun with a flashlight mounted atop it. Ziva recognized it. An M1014, the standard shotgun of the U.S. Armed Forces.

"You sure this will work?" Ziva accepted the shotgun from the Colonel. "After our last engagement, it's obvious that thing is immune to small arms fire."

"Not to worry, Officer David. We replaced the standard shotgun rounds in these things with armor-piercing sabot rounds. Those things can go through a brick. They should penetrate our monster's hide."

She nodded, hoping that was true.

Walling handed shotguns to Gibbs, Tony, McGee and three of the four Recon Marines with them, including Lieutenant Hernandez, who initially discovered Corporal Conti's remains not far from here. The Colonel and the fourth Recon member hefted a tubular weapon with a large cylindrical drum; an M32 multiple grenade launcher.

"Explosives inside a cave?" Ziva cocked an eyebrow. "Aren't you worried about a cave-in?"

Walling flashed her a quick smile. "Don't worry. Both M32s are loaded with magnesium flares. If this thing freaked out when Agent DiNozzo used a camera flash on it, imagine what it'll do when one of these babies goes off in front of it. Or on it. One of these flares can burn as hot as four thousand degrees Fahrenheit. I don't care how tough that thing is, there's no way it'll be able to stand that kind of heat."

Again, she prayed the Colonel was right.

"All right, people. Let's move out."

Colonel Walling led them toward the rocks. Admiration pulsed through Ziva for the Marine. Many Lieutenant Colonels, she imagined, would prefer to sit in their command vehicles or some building miles away while their subordinates did all the difficult work. But not Walling. The man was personally leading them into a cave where a very dangerous animal likely lived. That didn't surprise her, much, given how personal he took the deaths of the three Marines and the Fish and Wildlife Officer.

All this made Colonel Walling an ideal leader in her eyes.

Right up there with Gibbs.

Her heart thumped harder as they neared the mouth of the cave.

"Lights on," Walling ordered.

They all clicked on the flashlights attached to their weapons and entered the cave. Beams of light cut through the darkness, dancing around the uneven rock walls.

"You'd figure the Marines would have already searched this place," said McGee. "It's not exactly hidden from view."

"A couple Marines did search this cave." Walling moved forward, his M32 pointed straight ahead. "They probably didn't go in deep enough. Or that thing and its crate are well hidden."

Soon the sunlight spilling through the cave mouth began to fade. The numerous flashlights became the group's only means of illumination. Ziva's eyes constantly flickered from one beam of light to another. She saw no sign of a crate, or a monster. Tension squeezed her muscles. She expected the thing to jump out from some shadow where their flashlight beams missed.

Ziva held her breath, listening beyond the crunching footfalls of her teammates. She waited for a growl, a roar, the thumping run of an animal charging them.

Sweat formed on her brow. Fear boiled within her. Fear of what lay beyond their flashlights. Fear they might somehow miss this beast and it would attack them by surprise. Fear she'd be eaten alive.

_Trust your teammates. Trust your equipment._

_Trust yourself._

The cave floor dipped. Ziva and the others took careful steps, descending lower beneath the surface. How far into the cave was this creature? She couldn't imagine Chambers and Conti running so far through a dark cave and making it outside before that thing caught up to them.

_Maybe the creature dragged its crate deeper into the cave after it attacked Conti._ Dexter Stanley had told them after the monster killed that janitor, it had returned with its crate to under the basement stairs where it had been discovered.

"Over there," one of the Recon Marines said in a hushed voice.

Ziva looked to him, his finger silhouetted in the beam of his flashlight. Her eyes followed where he pointed. Other beams of light aimed in that direction.

Part of a wooden crate poked out from behind a rock outcropping.

She steadied her breathing, her index finger hovering over the trigger of her shotgun. Walling moved ahead with two of the Recon Marines. The others followed. The flashlight beams washed over the crate. A chill went up her spine.

The crate was open.

Gibbs and one of the Marines poked their shotgun-mounted flashlights inside the crate.

"Empty," Gibbs announced.

"So where is it?" The Recon Marine with the M32 shrugged.

Ziva bit her lip and pointed her shotgun down the cave. She saw nothing in her flashlight beam.

Sighing to herself, she turned back to the group.

Yellow eyes burned through the darkness.

"There!" Ziva racked her shotgun and pointed.

A roar echoed through the cave. The beast jumped out from a darkened crevasse behind the crate. The Recon Marine raised his M32 a couple inches before it tackled him. The grenade launcher clattered on the cave floor. The Marine cried out as the beast bent down, then came up, a chunk of human flesh in its mouth.

Ziva fired. Two more shotguns boomed. The beast threw back its head and howled, the bloody hunk of meat in its mouth falling onto the Marine. A red blotch appeared on its right shoulder. Blood also flowed down its side.

Walling lifted his M32. "Close your ey-"

The beast lashed out. Walling hollered and stumbled back.

And into Ziva! She grunted, falling to the ground. Her fingers desperately tried to clutch her shotgun, but it fell from her grasp. Walling's M32 bounced across the cave floor.

Pain hammered her side. A weight lay across her. Walling. She tried to crawl out from under him. More shotgun blasts erupted. The beast roared. It sounded on top of her.

Two flashlight beams swept over the monster. It was just a couple feet away.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Walling sat up.

Ziva scrambled away. She scanned for the fallen M32. A dark lump lay a few feet away.

She checked over her shoulder. The beast loomed over Colonel Walling. The Marine raised his arm, made a fist and swung.

The beast's jaws clamped down on Walling's hand. There was a crunch, a rip. The beast jerked its head. Walling screamed as he stared at the bloody stump where his right hand had been.

Two more shotguns fired. The beast flinched, more bloody holes appearing on its torso. It roared, turned back to Walling, and buried its face into the officer's neck.

Ziva scrambled across the ground. Shotgun fired continued. The beast cried out.

"Look out!"

"Move!"

Flashlight beams whipped through the darkness. She caught flashes of the beast lunging into the group. McGee flailed and fell down. Lieutenant Hernandez sprawled on the ground, his shotgun clattering next to him.

Part of a flashlight beam fell across the butt of Walling's M32.

Ziva scrambled for it.

"Where the hell is it!?"

"Probie! You okay?"

She snatched the butt of the M32 and pulled it toward her. She looked up.

Two flashlight beams criss-crossed the beast. It breathed heavily, blood covering its white fur.

But it still stood, still looked ready to attack.

It growled, its yellow eyes aimed right at Ziva.

Sitting on her rear, she raised the M32.

"Shut your eyes!"

She waited a second, praying everyone followed her order.

The beast roared and charged.

A deep _thump _burst from the grenade launcher. Ziva turned away, closing her eyes tight.

She heard a _pop_, then a sizzle. She sensed a white haze leaking through her self-imposed darkness.

A blood-curdling scream pierced her ears. Her shoulders and jaws tightened. She heard thrashing and claws furiously scratching the ground.

The white haze faded. She cracked her eyes open. The flare, laying on the cave floor, still burned. The beast jumped and twisted, pawing at its face. Smoke wafted from its chest.

It wailed and ran into the cave wall. The beast stumbled and fell on its back.

"Keep your eyes closed!" Her eyes open in thin slits, she aimed best she could. She pulled the trigger twice and shut her eyes tight.

More white haze burned through her darkness. The agonized cry from the beast made her shudder.

She dared open her eyes a crack. Brilliant white filled the cave. She could just make out movement among the burning flares. The smell of cooking meat reached her nostrils. Though this wasn't a smell to relish like from a kitchen. This was sickeningly sweet. She clenched her teeth, fighting down the nausea.

The howling continued. A new sound emerged. A crackling sound.

_Flames._

Ziva opened her eyes a bit more. The flares started to burn out. Still they remained rather bright. She shielded her eyes and watched the beast thrash about on the ground, fire consuming its body.

The flares faded. So did the beast's cries. It rolled on its stomach, pounding the ground, each strike less powerful than the last.

A shotgun racked. Tony approached the fiery monster, his gaze locked solidly on it. He stood a few feet away, the flames revealing the sweat covering his face. He aimed the M1014 shotgun down and fired once . . . twice . . . three times.

The beast's head split open. Blood and gray matter spattered across the ground.

Ziva exhaled loudly. She then drew a breath, and hacked on the smoke emitted by the burning monster.

"You okay, Ziva?" asked Tony.

"Yeah. Fine." She got to her feet. "McGee?"

"Yeah. I'm here. I think I banged my elbow on a rock."

Tony rolled his eyes. "I think you'll live, Probie."

Gibbs sounded off, as did Hernandez and his remaining two Recon Marines.

She did not hear from Colonel Walling.

Biting her lip, she looked down. In the glow of the fire she saw Walling lying still, blood pooled around his shoulder and head.

Slowly, she walked over to the body. She winced, taking in the large bloody tears in Walling's shoulder, neck and face.

Jaw tightened, Ziva nodded to the dead man. "We got it, Colonel. We got it."

_**NEXT: THE CONCLUSION**_


	10. Chapter 10

"So? Any idea what it is?"

Ziva glanced over at Tony, noting the anxiousness in his tone. The two of them, along with Gibbs, McGee and Abby, and stood around one of the metal tables in Ducky's examination room. Resting on the table was the charred corpse of the monster from Camp Lejeune. She held her breath for a moment, thinking about that harrowing battle with it barely twenty-four hours ago. Her eyes scanned the blackened body, its torso cut open by Ducky to remove the vital organs. Some small, illogical part of her mind expected it to suddenly jump off the table and attack them, like supposedly dead monsters did in all those stupid horror movies.

_I have been around Tony too long._

But this wasn't a movie. This was real life. And in real life, dead animals didn't come back to life.

And this creature was, as the Americans say, deader than a _door knob._

Ducky stood on the opposite side of the table from her and the team, looking over the animal. "Well, I can tell you what it isn't. It's not an extra-terrestrial being which, according to Tony and Ziva, Professor Stanley put forth as a possible theory."

"Are you sure?" Abby slouched to one side, clearly disappointed.

"Most definitely. While its bone and muscle density would benefit it if it came from a high gravity planet, an examination of its internal organs shows that its origins are terrestrial. Heart, lungs, kidneys. Their layout is consistent with what you would generally expect from a primate. Besides, if it were some sort of alien lifeform, it would likely be so different from anything we know, it would simply be beyond our comprehension."

"So it's some sort of mutant gorilla?" McGee inquired.

"More like a vampire gorilla." Tony smirked. "I mean, the way it skulked around the dark and bit people on the neck."

"Well, it definitely is a primate," Ducky answered. "Though not one I've ever seen. And most primates tend to live in more tropical or forested environments, not in cold regions like the Arctic, where this thing supposedly came from."

"Oh! Not true." Abby shook her head emphatically. "What about the Yeti?"

Ziva rolled her eyes. The Yeti. How ridiculous.

_But after this encounter, is it so ridiculous?_

Ducky bobbed his head from side to side. "All right, then. Most primates that we have proven to exist."

Abby frowned at the medical examiner.

Gibbs emitted a long sigh. "So basically what you're saying is you have no idea what this thing is . . . or was."

Ducky shrugged. "Well, we know it's a primate. But, Jethro, no one knows what this creature is. We're talking about an entirely new species."

"There is something else we know about that thing." Gibbs nodded to the creature. "It's dead, and it won't be killing any more people."

He took a sip of his coffee and headed for the door. "Case closed, people. Let's get back to work."

Abby pouted and folded her arms. "I was hoping it would be an alien."

Head down, she trudged out of the examination room.

McGee also frowned slightly. "An alien. Yeah, that would have been neat."

He followed Abby out of the room. So did Ziva and Tony seconds later.

She walked slower than normal down the hallway, images of the creature flashing through her mind. At times she substituted the monster for Dexter Stanley, remembering his tale of that horrific night at Horlicks University.

"Someone's deep in thought."

She turned and stopped, Tony's grinning face inches from hers.

"Something's on your mind. Care to share?"

Ziva frowned, wondering if Tony was the right person to tell. Then again, what she had going through her mind wasn't _that _personal.

"It's just . . . this is the Twenty-First Century, Tony. We should know every kind of animal that's out there. Science has shown what animals can and can't do, what's possible and what's not. Then we come across some man-eating animal no one's ever seen before, something that flies in the face of every zoological fact we know. I've always prided myself in being the sort of person who knows what's possible and what isn't. Now . . . now after dealing with this creature, what else is out there we've never encountered, that we may not be prepared to deal with, that might be even deadlier than that . . . gorilla thing?"

Tony shrugged. "Well, there's plenty of weird stuff out there. Ghosts, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, The Bermuda Triangle . . . the fact Justin Timberlake is so popular. It may be the Twenty-First Century, Ziva, but there's still a lot of mystery in the world."

"I don't like mysteries."

Tony drew his head back and gave her an appraising look. "I can tell you're not ready to let this one go."

The corner of Ziva's mouth twisted. "There's still a lot things we don't know. Like how that crate got from the lake where Professor Northrup dumped it to that cave at Camp Lejeune. Or how that creature could survive for so long locked up in a crate. Or if any records exist of the expedition that originally found it. Or if that creature was responsible for any other deaths before Dexter Stanley found it in 1982."

"You think Gibbs is going to let you investigate all that? Especially since that monster's been fried extra crispy?"

"Then I'll do it on my own time. Why not? Everyone here thinks I need a hobby. You have your movies, Gibbs has his boat, McGee has his writing and being an elf lord, and Abby . . . well, who knows the sorts of things she considers hobbies. So unraveling the mystery of this creature will be my hobby."

"Okay." Tony nodded. "You want any help?"

Ziva's brow furrowed. She gazed at him silently for a few moments. "You want to help me with this?"

"Yeah. Sure."

"And there wouldn't happen to be some ulterior motive to your help, would there?"

A sheepish grin played across Tony's lips. "Well, maybe. But, come on, I'm curious about this thing, too."

"And you're serious about this?"

"Of course I am. Besides, co-workers should spend more time together after hours. You know, it's good for team bonding and moral and all that. C'mon, what do you say?"

Ziva slowly worked her jaw back and forth. How many hours of the day did she have to put up with Tony's constant yammering and movie references and wisecracks and sexual innuendos? Did she really want more of that outside of work?

_Think of how bored you'd be without all that._

She froze for a moment. _Did I just think that?_

Tony kept staring at her, an eager grin on his face.

A smile spread across her face. She stuck out her hand to shake Tony's. "I can't wait to get started."

**THE END?**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **_Thanks to everyone who stuck with this story. I hope you enjoyed it. And thanks especially to those who left a review. Those are much appreciated. Oh, Kittyboosmom, I couldn't resist putting the vampire gorilla reference in here after you came up with it. For more great sci-fi/action adventure, check out my original novel DARK WINGS, available from Amazon or as an e-book at smashword-dot-com._


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